An outside sales position has just opened up within your company – should you promote your inside salesperson (internal recruiting) or hire from outside the company (external)?  The inside salesperson is very good on the phone and works well alongside other outside salespeople but you have never experienced this employee in the role of trying to land new business.

The outside sales job has a heavily weighted “net new” business component to it, something this employee has never done.  Do you promote and potentially make a bad hiring decision with internal recruiting or do you hire someone from outside the company with a proven track record?

How does the hiring team objectively compare two candidates with such varying backgrounds?  One candidate knows the company and the environment but has never sold to new prospects, while the other knows nothing about the culture fit of the organization yet has an excellent sales track record.

The answer to this dilemma may lie in simply leveling the playing field of the selection process by allowing both candidates to move out of their current roles and into the role they are applying for.  This way, the hiring team does not get caught up in preconceived ideas or thoughts about either of the candidates.

Past experience is taken out of the equation of the hiring process and replaced with real life job experience through a simulation hiring process that allows the team to see each candidate active in the role the team is seeking to fill.  The team may be surprised by the outcome of the process as it pertains to each candidate.

Sometimes hiring teams tend to put too much weight on what a candidate has accomplished in their past roles.  Past experience is important, however, there are a few flaws in this thinking when it comes to hiring.

Firstly, a candidate being considered for the role who has never participated in certain types of tasks required for the job will have very little to provide in the way of answers for these types of interview questions (“what have you accomplished in this type of role?”).

Secondly, a candidate who may have been with an organization simply due to luck and timing, with a product that was in high demand, an unlimited marketing budget and all of the other stars lined up for them will be able to answer interview questions with great stories of success, but may not be a good salesperson for your company.  Past experience is not always a great indicator of future success!

By taking past experience out of the equation and experiencing how a candidate will think, respond and engage in key activities to the specific role they are applying for will provide objective thinking and decision making strategies to the hiring team.  Job Sampling and/or Hiring Simulations are a unique and effective alternative to assisting teams in making the right decisions on whether to use internal recruiting or to hire an external candidate.